America

Atsuko, Emiko and Hiroko were among tens of thousands of Japanese women who married their former enemies after World War II. They landed in 1950s America knowing no one, speaking little English and often moving in with stunned in-laws. PHOTO: BBC

What does it mean to leave your country, where you were somebody, and move miles to a continent you’d only heard of? A country where you’d be a ‘nobody’. Not knowing whether the decision to say ‘yes’ to a former enemy was right. Struggling for words that help start a conversation. Being told not to wear the one piece of cloth your identity hinges upon? And years of trying to fit in, juggling two distinct identities? Listen to the Japanese War brides as they tell their story on BBC this week.

For 21-year-old Hiroko Tolbert, meeting her husband’s parents for the first time after she had travelled to America in 1951 was a chance to make a good impression. She picked her favourite kimono for the train journey to upstate New York, where she had heard everyone had beautiful clothes and beautiful homes.

But rather than being impressed, the family was horrified. “My in-laws wanted me to change. They wanted me in Western clothes. So did my husband. So I went upstairs and put on something else, and the kimono was put away for many years,” she says.

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Portrait of a Hopi Indian holding one of the baskets she has made. Image: Franklin Price Knott/National Geographic Creative/Corbis

Virginia – a girl poses with corn and pumpkins during corn harvest. Image: Charles Martin/National Geographic Creative/Corbis

Crow Indian Reservation, Montana – Men stand at the site of the monument to the Seventh Cavalry. Image: Edwin L. Wisherd/National Geographic Creative/Corbis

San Antonio, Texas – A trick rider poses with her blue pony at the rodeo. Image: Clifton R. Adams/National Geographic Creative/Corbis

New Orleans, Louisiana – A woman sitting on stone steps in The French Quarter sells pralines. Image: Edwin L. Wisherd/National Geographic Creative/Corbis

It’s been a century since National Geographic published its first color cover using the autochrome technique. Gradually phased out post 1930 and replaced by Kodachrome and Agfacolor, the autochrome era is said to have given the art of painting a run for its money. With its lush colors and lyrical and evocative quality, the technique not only dislodged black and white photography’s monarchy but also brought together science and art. Credited to the Lumiere brothers, autochrome painted dreams in colors.